In 120 hours, the garlic is totally transformed, going from white to black and from hard to soft. Temperature is a constant 80 degrees day and night, and humidity is 85/90%, with the first 24 hours at almost 100%.
Some heads lost more weight than others, and I'll try to understand why, but the fact remains. A bulb that weighed 90g at the start may weigh 80g as well as 50g on arrival, five days after the start of fermentation. (This may be due to the bulbs that were fresh or semi-fresh last week, some of which may have begun a pronounced dehydration process, and a 24-hour difference in a harvest may be enough to make this observation...
In any case, the cayeux are magnificent, deep black and very intense in flavor. On the nose, you can detect pronounced scents of licorice, mushrooms (truffle, dried porcini, trumpet of death, dried morel), some old balsamics, yakitori, teriyaki (soy). To the taste, it's slightly acidic, slightly sweet, like balsamic vinegar without the acidity, indescribably fresh and endlessly long on the palate. It's the smell of autumn undergrowth that dominates, the moment when mushrooms (especially chanterelles and trumpets of death) emerge from the earth, and this smell becomes a taste.
The scent and taste are really addictive - this is certainly due to the fragrance, which is rather salty/acidic, and the taste, which is sweet/sweet.
I'm going to start the drying and maturing process in order to define optimum consumption dates, but one thing's for sure, it's off to a good start.
